Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year Part 56

Compare its setting with that of "The Lists at Ashby," page 363.

2. Who are the chief characters? What was the general situation with respect to the Christians?

3. Did Ursus know what he was to confront when he entered the arena? Why did he expect to be crucified?

4. Relate what took place in the arena.

5. Explain: podium, Hercules, colossus, superhuman, barbarian; line 13, page 407; lines 8-9, page 412.

6. Sienkiewicz (shen-kya'vich) is a famous Polish novelist (1846-1916). His best known novel is _Quo Vadis_ ("Whither goest thou?").

(From Jeremiah Curtin's translation of _Quo Vadis_, copyrighted by Little, Brown & Company.)

POLONIUS'S ADVICE TO HIS SON

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Memorize a goodly pa.s.sage from this, and interpret the meaning of your selection to the cla.s.s.

There; my blessing with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 5 Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, 10 Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; 15 For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are most select and generous, chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 20 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all; to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

--_Hamlet._

1. Spend at least one recitation discussing the life and works of Shakespeare. Bring to cla.s.s some interesting accounts of him or his plays.

MERCY

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Antonio, a merchant-s.h.i.+pper of Venice, has met with financial losses. Shylock, his grasping creditor and compet.i.tor, demands in court the fulfillment of Antonio's bond, which states that Antonio has forfeited a pound of his own flesh to Shylock.

Portia, a young woman who plays the part of attorney for Antonio, makes the following appeal to Shylock for mercy.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 5 The throned monarch better than his crown; His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this scepter'd sway; 10 It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to G.o.d himself; And earthly power doth then show likest G.o.d's When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this,-- 15 That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy.

--_The Merchant of Venice._

1. Read this extract line by line, and interpret its meaning. Then read the whole of it aloud as Portia spoke it.

GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD KNOW

The following list of book t.i.tles suggests some good library browsing for you. Try reading one good book a week outside of school hours. Aside from the immediate pleasure and knowledge derived, you will thus establish an invaluable habit and set up for yourself standards of literary judgment.

Alcott's _Eight Cousins_ Aldrich's _Story of a Bad Boy_ Baldwin's _Discovery of the Old Northwest_ Baldwin's _Fifty Famous Rides and Riders_ Baldwin's _Old Greek Stories_ Brown's _Rab and his Friends_ Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ Burnett's _Secret Garden_ Burroughs's _Bird Stories_ Burroughs's _Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers_ Clemens's _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ Clemens's _Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ Clemens's _Prince and the Pauper_ Clemens's _Roughing It_ Cooke's _Stories of the Old Dominion_ Cooper's _Deerslayer_ Cooper's _Pathfinder_ Cooper's _Spy_ Dana's _Two Years before the Mast_ d.i.c.kens's _Child's History of England_ d.i.c.kens's _Christmas Carol_ d.i.c.kens's _Cricket on the Hearth_ d.i.c.kens's _Nicholas Nickleby_ d.i.c.kens's _Pickwick Papers_ Garland's _Boy Life on the Prairie_ Guerber's _Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages_ Hill's _On the Trail of Was.h.i.+ngton_ Holland's _Historic Boyhoods_ Holland's _Historic Girlhoods_ Howells's _Stories of Ohio_ Hughes's _Tom Brown at Rugby_ Irving's _Sketch Book_ Kipling's _Captains Courageous_ Kipling's _Jungle Books_ Lamb's _Tales from Shakespeare_ London's _Call of the Wild_ Longfellow's _Courts.h.i.+p of Miles Standish_ Lucas's _Slowcoach_ Mabie's _Book of Christmas_ Mabie's _Book of Old English Ballads_ Mabie's _Famous Stories Every Child should Know_ Marden's _Stories from Life_ Ollivant's _Bob, Son of Battle_ Pyle's _Men of Iron_ Roosevelt's _Stories of the Great West_ Scott's _Ivanhoe_ Scott's _Quentin Durward_ Seton's _Trail of the Sandhill Stag_ Stevenson's _Kidnapped_ Stevenson's _Master of Ballantrae_ Stevenson's _Travels with a Donkey_ Stockton's _Stories of New Jersey_ Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_ Tarkington's _Penrod_ Thompson's _Stories of Indiana_ Warner's _Being a Boy_ Whitehead's _Standard Bearer_ Wiggin's _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_ Yonge's _Book of Golden Deeds_